Revision as of 22:11, 5 January 2010

Andhra Pradesh is a state in Southern India.
Andhra Pradesh lies in the south eastern region of India, with Bay of Bengal on the east and shares boundaries with Orissa on the north, Tamilnadu on the south and Karnataka on the west.

Understand

Climate

Weather is extremely hot for the most part of the year with high humidity along the coast and relatively dry in the interior areas. The monsoons in June and the return monsoons in October provide adequate rain fall for the rain dependent agriculture in the state. The best time to visit is November till February when it's relatively cooler. The hottest months are April, May and June.

Talk

Telugu is the official language and is spoken by the majority of the populace. However, most educated people will also be able to speak Hindi and English.

Like most South Indians, Telugu people are very protective of their language and culture, and will respond more readily to English than to Hindi. The exception is Hyderabad, where Hindi and Deccani Urdu are more commonly spoken.

English is widely spoken in Hyderabad and other major cities. Apart from Telugu, the major languages spoken in Hyderabad are Hindi and Urdu, Tamil in the south and Kannada in the west. Minimum knowledge of Telugu will be extremely useful (but not essential).

Get in

By plane

The main and only international airport in Andhra Pradesh is Hyderabad. Direct international connectivity to Hyderabad is available from many countries. International carriers operating from Hyderabad are Air India, Emirates, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Kuwait Airways, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Srilankan Airlines and Thai Airways. Domestic connectivity is excellent with Air India (and their subsidiary Indian Airline), Deccan, GoAir, IndiGo, Jet Airways, JetLite, Kingfisher, Paramount and SpiceJet operating from here.

Do

Please conserve water and try to cut down use of plastics. In extreme summers avoid travelling in afternoons. Always carry mobile phone and always keep emergency numbers like 100 for police, 108 for fire and ambulance and 104 for health emergency with you.

Eat

Like almost every other state in India, Andhra pradesh has a rich variety of cuisines and change widely from region to region. The Guntur/Vijayawada region is known for extremely spicy dishes. Rice is the staple food and is eaten pretty much with every meal along with a variety of vegetable and meat curries. The capital city, Hyderabad is known for its world famous hyderabadhi biryani (spiced rice) and one would do very well to savor it.